I can't think of life without cricket: Sanath Jayasuriya

Posted by Hilal

Sri Lanka went on to win the Asia Cup and Jayasuriya's blitzkrieg capped him as the highest run-getter in the six-nation tournament. His statistics in the tournament were hard to ignore as he averaged 75.60 and had a strike rate of 126.00, scoring two hundreds and one fifty.

A few excerpts can be found below, the original article can be found here.

"There were a few things that I worked on after the Australian series early this year. It was the off-season and there were no domestic competitions, so I had a few sessions with the bowling machine and worked ever so harder on my physical fitness," he said.

His rich experience in cricket helped him take failure with poise as he worked his way to the side.

"When you are going through a bad patch, it's very important not to panic. There are so many factors that contribute to poor form and you just need to patiently work on them and the important thing is to revert to basics," Jayasuriya said.

"I regained my touch towards the end of the IPL and was happy to be part of the Asia Cup squad. It was a pleasant experience to win the tournament in Pakistan. We hadn't won any major competition in Pakistan since winning the World Cup," Jayasuriya remarked.

The left-hander says he is now looking forward to the upcoming five-match series against India that starts on Monday.

When asked what went wrong with the Indians in the Tests, Jayasuriya admitted being lost for words.

"It's hard to understand. They are such a strong batting side, for me the best in the world without any doubt. But Sri Lanka gave India no chance. They kept the pressure on and it's not easy when Ajantha (Mendis) and Murali bowl in tandem. I thought Sri Lanka had a good plan, which they executed to perfection. There was someone to rise to the occasion at every crucial point."

"But I am sure they (Indians) will bounce back. Sachin is a class act, Rahul and Sourav are quality players. The point is when you are having such a long career, like they have had, you are bound to have a poor series. It happens to all players in the world, but the problem here was all three of them struggled at the same time," Jayasuriya added.

The veteran also showered praise on young spinner Mendis who finished the Test series with a world record of 26 wickets.

"I am really happy for what Ajantha has done. He's come up the hard way and his rise to stardom is something of a fairy tale. He's a quiet kind of chap, who wants to keep improving. I have a particular liking for blokes who are the first to practice and the last to leave and Mendis is something similar. When you play at this level you need to keep working harder and improve your game every day," Jayasuriya said.